Ho'oponopono - Meeting the Big Kahuna

In the last post I discussed the application of ho'oponopono relative to using it to other people. Since liberation is largely about well, being liberated, any practice that increases your personal freedom and relationship to the universe or the god of your understanding counts, in my book, as a good idea.

So, we now look at the ho'oponopono approach of getting into a relationship with God. In this form, the technique is closer to confession. The idea is that the more open you are with Him, the better. That's why, in my opinion, so many religious adepts and spiritually realised masters write accounts that are almost sexual in recounting their experience of God. Meeting the universe is about vulnerability. Infinite vulnerability. And love. Leave us not forget love. We are left with faith, hope and love and the greatest of these is love, if you remember your Corinthians.

So, it's about taking responsibility for different aspects of your life and accepting that somehow, somewhere, you have created these situations. Whether you actually did or did not is a matter of metaphysical debate of Jedi-Sith continuum proportions, and I am currently throwing my chips on the side of "you probably did most of it, if not all of it". Nonetheless, taking responsibility for it is still a good idea from a personal empowerment viewpoint. Then, you basically sit before your God, and do the ho'oponono mantras.

"I'm sorry. Please forgive me. I love you. Thank you."

And the more open you can be the better. I personally find that I am too lazy to think about exactly what I did wrong, so I just start with the mantras. Eventually (well, actually pretty soon) things and events tend to come to mind, and I apologise for those. The lean in this particular version of this technique is in the "I'm sorry." The more willing you are to accept that your position may not have been the only right one, or even the right one, the more flexible your ego stance is, and the more can be achieved. In this open confession, you let go and let God.

Oh, and one word of warning - do not use the "please forgive me" part to do a mental ego flip. The ego is quite willing to do an insincere apology if it knows that it will be forgiven. All that is is what Paul Scheele used to call finessing. It goes through the motions to get to the desired result. Unfortunately, it does not go through the E-motions. And that is what gets it uncomfortable.

This is a very useful version for difficult issues and situations too, but I would use an adapted mantra setup:

"I'm sorry. Please forgive me. Please help me. Your Will be done. I love you. Thank you."

The confession bit (don't underestimate confession - there's a reason why most, if not all, major religions have it in one form or another) remains the same. There is a request for help, but again, the final mantra cuts at the ego bit of the equation. The ego is quite willing, again, to go through the motions if it thinks it can wheedle something out of God. What God thinks of that probably differs through the traditions, but what I can say with a lot of certainty is that the ego gets away intact if it is done in that way. It has to accept (with faith, which implies uncertainty, which is something the ego NEVER likes because it fears one or more outcomes that it views as unfavourable) that the best will happen, and it may not like the result.

Basically, in other words, use surrender. Openness. Everything that implies vulnerability and discomfort. It's not easy. But then again, who said liberation was easy? As for the last bit - saying thank you is always about gratitude and appreciation. From the heart. It's just a nice thing to say when you ask someone for a favour (even if that happens to be your Higher Self), don't you think?

There are, of course, other nuances to the ho'oponopono approach. More to come.

Ho'oponono - the Kahuna Way to Awakening

Right ho. So I haven't really posted much original material here for a bit, and now that I've found a topic I feel like getting my teeth into, I've decided to change that. The once obscure art of ho'oponono is pretty famous these days, thanks to Joe Vitale and Hew Len. I for one happen to think that is a good thing. There are, however, quite a few versions of these mysterious art, which have to do largely with reconciliation, forgiveness and karmic clearing. Those who know me will know that it is the last of these three categories that would catch my attention. It is not my practice to do an expose of other people's techniques on my blog, so I will proceed to do what I usually do, which is to present MY version. Or versions. It's no secret I usually find at least a few different proverbial nails to use the same metaphysical hammer on. Live with it.

So, the now somewhat-famous four-sentence mantras associated with this technique of Hawaiian clearing are:

"I am sorry. Please forgive me. I love you. Thank you."

Awww. Ain't that sweet. It sounds like a particularly dear child with blue eyes and golden locks apologising to mumsy for spilling sugar on the table. Well, har de har har. The last time I checked, mumsy wasn't in charge of the karmic balance book. Or was she? I nearly titled this post, "Who's the matter with me?" Maybe at least some of our troubles can be traced to her. And definitely to someone or other. So, just to get my writing momentum in order again, here's a metaphysical technique for purifying health and situational (e.g. money) issues.

Relax. Meditate. Go to your alpha level. Breathe deeply. All that jazz.

When there, consider the issue you have in mind in a relaxed and oblique manner (no need to get all emotional and swingy about it). Ask yourself, "Why am I experiencing this particular issue?" You could also ask yourself variations of this, such as "Why is this happening to me?" or "What is the cause of this problem?" I could go on a whole diatribe...er...discussion about why people don't use their common sense when selecting the terms appropriate to them, but let's just leave that for now.

Anyway, relax and allow a person to come to mind. Whoever this hapless individual is, you apply the four sentence mantras to. And mean it. It may be someone you know. It may be someone representing someone you wronged. Or even a group of people. An uncle representing all uncles, perhaps. Or maybe you said Blarney the purple dinosaur was a disgrace to his race and now have to apologise to dinosaurs everywhere for comparing him to them. It's amazing what sort of karma shows up these days. Anyhow, try and mean it as much as possible. And if someone else shows up, keep doing it. It feels painful at first, but it allows you to open pathways that were previously blocked by guilt and resistance.

Perhaps you have no idea why you should be apologising. Perhaps you think the person should apologise to you. Well, play with it. Disagreements and grudges are really two-way things. And maybe YOU should apologise to you for holding that grudge in your mind for so long when someone else may have long moved on. Keep going until you have some kind of release.

Now, sometimes interesting characters will show up. Your higher self, perhaps. Or you in the past. Or a you in the future. Or your subconscious or shadow selves. The nonconscious mind has a way of producing interesting imagery. You might even end up apologising to a child version of yourself for not living up to your dreams and expectations.

Keep digging. I don't want to go into the whole deep explanation of why this works, but it's important. I do want to point out that in the traditional Hawaiian model of the selves, there is the conscious mind, the subconscious mind and superconscious mind. This kind of trains the conscious mind to act in a more open and humble way, whilst probing the subconscious for past hurts. Keep that model in mind. I may well post a series of techniques that dance around that. Also, it is useful to remember the in spite of the more popular Ho'oponono, there were other very important Hawaiian magical secrets, such as the Rain of Blessings, which are relevant to ways of living. Until next time.

Falling in Love is Elemental

The conditions causing you to fall in love with somebody are not because your partner is a wealthy person, has a lot of intelligence, is a good breadwinner, or would be good for you. If you don’t have those accessories and you begin to like somebody as another human being and appreciate him or her as your mate, then you are operating from a square-one point of view; whereas if you have been talked into it, it is operating from square thirty-three. However, if it is genuinely felt and personally experienced, falling in love is like the elements: fire burns, water is moist, air moves, space is spacious.

~ Chogyam Trungpa
- from Ocean of Dharma quotes

An Open Heart

As we become more inwardly free from our conditioning and our fears, the love and connection that are possible in relationships tend to flow through us more naturally. As our defences are lowered, our heart opens, and there is a natural desire to give from the generosity of the heart. We discover that genuine happiness in relationships is not a product of having our expectations met or getting what we want but rather it is the consequence of freely giving in order to bring happiness to another.

Ezra Bayda

Holding Awareness Steady and Connecting to Different Levels of Intelligence

Source: Cephas/Wikimedia

I recently had the privilege of speaking at a Silva Method Graduate Meeting. It was an event that I had not anticipated participating in, as I have not been active within that community for quite some time. It was a lovely experience to be speaking to people of that particular mindset again, and in my own way, I was reminded of some key points regarding manifestation.

In particular, one person had 30 years' experience of using the Method and was very successful with regard to manifestation. Unsurprisingly, I was interested in his specific internal arrangement. It seems he only focussed on one particular technique - the mental screen. If you want to learn that particular technique, just buy the Silva Method book by Jose Silve and Philip Miele. It's in there. Most visualisation techniques are similar so I will not get into the details of the how. I was more interested in the nuances of application.

I discovered something particularly interesting - he has close to, if not 100% success, and it comes from just repeating the same process over and over again. This is almost a complete counter to my approach, which involves more open awareness and flexibility in application. I have my reasons for doing it the way I do, some of which are in parts of this blog, but that is not to say there is no merit to the other approach either. In his mind, he would simply hold the image of that which was to be manifested. Based on pacing his language patterns and metaprogram structures, I deduced a number of things of interest.

Firstly, he could hold the image remarkably steady. His personality was one that was steady to begin with. This is not to say that he was without fear, but rather that he sat naturally in his awareness within a place of relaxation, and thus power. I can only imagine that this power deepens when he actually meditates. And he meditates thrice a day, so it is quite possible that he is naturally in light meditation most of the time anyway. When he visualises sitting at that level of awareness, he can hold an image steady.

Secondly, he could project that image very well. You might think that this is essentially the same thing. I have come to suspect it is not. Jose Silva called his work Psychorientology, and every graduate will recognise the phrase "entering deeper, healthier levels of mind". This and many other nuances of the Silva Method suggest that different aspects of living function at different levels. It also means that you might, in fact, be holding a perfectly viable image in your mind, but because you are not connecting and projecting it into the relevant level of intelligence, it becomes less effective. Because this person had few or no mental blocks in the areas in which he exercised his abilities, the image communicated very well.

Some would accuse me of making a simple thing complicated. Indeed, the explanation of the process is probably more complicated than necessary. In practice, it is a matter of relaxing and connecting with intention to the level of existence and then trusting the subconscious to continue the work. Nonetheless, I find that three things need to be taken note of as a result of this: openness, steadiness and connection. This also interplays with the expectancy factor in the desire-belief-expectancy trio forming faith within the Silva Method system. Expectancy is more open than expectation, and that openness comes from having mentally connected to the level of intelligence/existence necessary and having already created the end result at the relevant level.

Finally, this gentleman differed from me greatly in one aspect. He was very specific in his visualisations. He would visualise, for example, the price he wished to sell his car for, and did indeed get it. He would put timelines on his projects. I have in the past pointed out the specificity also limits the extent of the manifestation. Nonetheless, in his context, one can see that using a model of steady projection, it would be of benefit to him to have greater objectivity. I am not quite convinced that these levels of specificity are ideal, but certainly it emphasises the importance of steadiness.